Bitcoin Price: US$ 66,783.01 (-2.21%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,469.40(-2.55%)
Ripple’s legal team has requested a court to consider a reasonable civil penalty in its ongoing case against the SEC, drawing on the regulator’s settlement with Terraform Labs as a precedent. Despite the SEC’s hefty request for Ripple to pay roughly $2 billion in penalties, Ripple is pushing back, arguing for a maximum penalty of $10 million, a figure they justify by pointing out that the SEC has previously agreed to penalties ranging from 0.6% to 1.8% of the defendant’s gross revenues in comparable cases. Meanwhile, Nigerian officials have dropped some charges against detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, although he still faces money laundering charges from Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Gambaryan’s ordeal has been further complicated by health issues; despite collapsing in court due to Malaria and a court order mandating immediate hospitalisation, it took the prison authorities 11 days to take him for a check-up, and the results of this check-up have been withheld from his family, lawyers, and the U.S. embassy. Amidst these legal battles, Turkey is gearing up to introduce a 0.03% transaction tax on cryptocurrency trading as part of a significant fiscal overhaul aimed at addressing the country’s budget deficit. These proposed tax reforms, which are designed to capitalise on the growing popularity of crypto trading among Turkish investors, are expected to generate a substantial 226 billion liras ($7 billion), equivalent to roughly 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Alexandre Maaza, Cardano’s sustainability lead, envisions decentralised identity (ID) solutions as the next “killer” use case that could attract millions of new users to blockchain technology. These privacy-oriented solutions require users to provide only the minimum amount of information necessary for verification, emphasising the need for non-speculative use cases to attract mainstream adopters. In a parallel development, MicroStrategy, an American software technology firm, has announced a new $700-million debt offering due in 2032. The firm, which has already acquired 214,400 BTC valued at an estimated $14 billion, plans to use the net proceeds from this offering to further increase its Bitcoin holdings and for general corporate purposes. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s hashrate has deviated from its 18-month uptrend, suggesting a potential capitulation by Bitcoin miners. This decline could be attributed to mining firms shutting down older generation ASIC chip mining rigs, which have become unprofitable since the fourth Bitcoin halving.
Trezor, a leading hardware wallet firm, has taken significant strides to enhance user experience. The firm has launched Trezor Expert, a personalised onboarding service designed to simplify the journey into crypto self-custody. Complementing this service, Trezor has also unveiled its new hardware wallet, Trezor Safe 5, which boasts upgraded security and user-centric features, and is currently available for preorder at $169. However, not all entities in the crypto space are experiencing such progress. FlowBank, a Swiss online bank that offered cryptocurrency trading services, has been declared bankrupt. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) found that the bank, which held more than 22,000 client accounts, seriously breached banking standards, particularly capital requirements, leading to its placement on FINMA’s watchlist a year after its 2020 launch. Amid these developments, Solana Labs has introduced Bond, a blockchain-based customer engagement platform. Aimed at fostering long-term brand loyalty, Bond leverages the Solana blockchain to offer collectible “digital twins” and limited-edition digital products that accompany their real-world counterparts, thereby encouraging repeat engagement and enhancing overall customer value.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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